


Dev

by heelsandarrows



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 08:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6277729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heelsandarrows/pseuds/heelsandarrows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of the Hell or Highwater series. A piece on Dev, Doug's older brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dev

It had been just over a year since he last saw his brother. He had promised to write, but never did. Dev began to travel for work more and more, he wasn't as home as much as he used to be. Despite his brother living on campus, he still would visit and their paths would cross. But now, he never came around. Not that he really could, not without getting beaten by his parents. 

Around three years ago, his brother met the love of his life. Dev had met her a few times, she was nice and smart. They had balanced each other out. Her only flaw had been her background, her caste, things that shouldn't matter anymore, but mattered to his traditional parents. She wasn’t their pick for him. In their eyes, she was too dark-skinned, bratty, and outspoken. They’d gotten all that from one dinner with her. According to his brother, the dinner had been a disaster, it turned into just a huge argument his brother had with his parent that his girlfriend was caught in the middle of. She just wanted to defend him, but got told off for getting involved with things she said.

When his parents forbade his little brother from seeing her again, he ignored them. Of course, his parents didn't know this. Dev knew, and Dev had promised to keep it a secret. Months later however, his brother told his parents they were engaged. That was the last of it. He lied and disobeyed, and he wouldn’t be coming back. 

That was the day Dev lost his best friend. Sometimes he rather his brother had died instead of disowned. The idea that he was still out there, but Dev didn't know how he was doing or if his little brother needed him drove him crazy.

Dev often questioned himself on why he stuck around his parents, why he continued to follow their orders even after they had treated his brother so poorly. But then the fear came. He wasn't sure how his brother did it. How he overcame it all, especially since his parents were much harder on him. Dev wasn't oblivious when it came to the different experiences he and his brother had. 

In his parents eyes, Dev was perfect, while his brother was everything but. They’d been harder on him in school, expected more of him, always compared him to Dev. On the other spectrum, Dev always had more attention, could do nothing wrong. He knew it was awful and unfair, but he had special treatment in his life. Suddenly standing up to his parents and having it all taken away was frightening. 

After disowning his brother, Dev became the only child. He was out of school, had a good job, and just 24. The only thing now on his parent’s mind was that he get married. Unfortunately that was one of the last things Dev wanted to do. He wasn't sure if he wanted to even get married, of course he’d never admit that to his parents. 

Not admitting it, meant that they would keep trying to set him up. He became increasingly uncomfortable each time his parents brought someone over for dinner. He never had successful relationships with women, he wasn’t even attracted to any of them.

He didn't know anything anymore. What he knew was what he was brought up to do, keep his parents happy. He wanted to be free, he felt suffocated. Staying and following his parents orders like some rule driven robot, would bring him nothing.

He wanted to stand up to them, be able to talk to them freely about these things, but he knew it could never happen. Not without him suffering the same fate as his brother. He didn't want that, he didn't have the strength to be himself.

One more dinner tonight, that's all. Maybe she would even be the one. Dev went to work cleaning the house for their guest tonight. “Ma, you can’t just throw all this paper into one box like this,” he commented grabbing a large box from the laundry room. 

“Just throw it out. All garbage.”

Dev gave a small nod and headed out with the box. He sifted through it slightly just noting the various things in it. Old newspapers, very old and cut up coupons, other various things. Then just as he was about to dump it in the recycling, he saw half of a ripped envelope with his name on it.

Since not being around as much, he had his parents collect his mail and put it for him to come back to, but he hadn't seen this before. He took out the ripped half, and skimmed it over. It had been a wedding invitation from his brother. The date had been a part ripped off, and he dug through the box looking for the other half. 

Looking through he found about five other letters addressed to him, opened and carelessly put back. Then he found the other half of the wedding invite. June 8th. It was June 16th. Eight days ago, and he missed it because his parents kept a letter from him. He went through the letters he found. All of them dated, sent within the last year. His brother had promised to write and he did. 

Dev kicked the trash can, angry and upset that his parents never gave him these letters. That they knew about it and never told him. The last thing he wanted to do now was to have dinner. That was the last straw. He dumped the paper into the trash and kept the letters. 

If they didn't want anything to do with his brother then fine, but interfering and manipulating things so Dev didn't hear from him, wasn't fine. The only thing his brother ever did wrong was to love. Still filled with anger he left. He wasn't going to do this anymore, he wasn’t going to live under their control, under fear. He wanted to be like his brother, be free.

He went out to a bar, just to blow off steam. He didn't want to go home that night. Not only was he still mad at them, but they would be angry with him for disappearing. So he didn't go back. Instead, he went the home with the guy who sat next to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so because I actually wrote this for school I didn't put Doug's name anywhere, just in case u were wondering why it wasn't there. ( it was bc lowkey I was like, yikes this is basically fanfiction I can't mention any characters that aren't mine lmao )
> 
> But yes, I love this man a lot and I can't wait to put more abt him out there.


End file.
